Cover art
, June 1896, by Edward Penfield.]] Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, comic book, video game (box art), DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e. to promote the product it is displayed on, but can have also have an aesthetic function, and may be artistically connected to the product, such as with art by the creator of the product. Album cover art Album cover art is artwork created for a music album. Iconic album cover art includes Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road and their [[The Beatles (album)|"White Album"]]. Albums can have cover art created by the musician, as with Joni Mitchell's Clouds, or by an associated musician, such as Bob Dylan's artwork for the cover of Music From Big Pink, by The Band, Dylan's backup band's first album. Artists known for their album cover art include Alex Steinweiss, an early pioneer in album cover art, Roger Dean, and the Hipgnosis studio. Some album art may cause controversy because of nudity, offending churches, trademark or others.Heller, Steven, "Alex Steinweiss, Originator of Artistic Album Covers, Dies at 94," New York Times, July 19, 2011 There have been numerous books documenting album cover art, particularly rock and jazz album covers."The Blues: Album Cover Art", Chronicle Books, 1996''1000 Record Covers'', Michael Ochs, Taschen Publications, 2005 Alex Steinweiss was an art director and graphic designer who brought custom artwork to record alum covers and invented the first packaging for long-playing records. Book cover Whether printed on the dust jacket of a hardcover book, or on the cover of a paperback, book cover art has had books written on the subject, and numerous artists have become noted for their book cover art, including Richard M. Powers and Chip Kidd. Magazine cover Magazine cover artists include Art Spiegelman, who modernized the look of The New Yorker magazine, and his predecessor Rea Irvin, who created the Eustace Tilly iconic character for the magazine. Popular music scores (early 20th century) Sheet music cover artists include Frederick S. Manning, William Austin Starmer, and Frederick Waite Starmer, all three of whom worked for Jerome H. Remick. Other prolific artists included Albert Wilfred Barbelle, André De Takacs, and Gene Buck. Gallery File:Ivory book cover MS Douce 176.jpg|Ivory book cover with scenes from the life of Christ circa 800 AD File:Title design of A song of the English (1909).png|Illustration to an edition of Kipling's A song of the English (1909) File:AmazingMan22.jpg| Cover of Amazing Man Comics 22 (May, 1941).Art by Paul Gustavson. File:OlympicClubTimesDemocratHeadline.JPG|Gentleman Jim Corbett and John L. Sullivan at Olympic Club, New Orleans File:Vanity Fair June 1914.jpg|Cover art for Vanity Fair magazine File:Vanity Fair cover by Ethel Caroline Rundquist 1916.jpg|Skater with scarf. January 1916 Vanity Fair cover by Ethel Caroline Rundquist. File:The Spider April 1934.jpg|Cover of the pulp magazine The Spider (April 1934, vol. 2, no. 3) File:LIFE 06191944 Eisenhower cover.jpg|LIFE magazine, Time Inc., Official U. S. Army Photo in cover Image:TheBeatles68LP.jpg|Album cover for The Beatles' "White Album" Image:Mitrohin for Zamiatin's Uezdnoe.jpg|Book cover for Uezdnoe, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1916 Image:RealMotherGoose.jpg|Book cover for The Real Mother Goose, 1916, Blanche Fisher Wright, illustrator Image:Mister Mystery 01.jpg|Comic book cover for Mister Mystery #1 Image:Billboard02 10thAnniv.jpg|Cover for (the) Billboard Magazine's tenth anniversary edition, 1904 Image:Colliers Weekly.jpg|Cover of Collier's Weekly September 1897 See also *Book cover *History of graphic design *List of controversial album art *Computer and video game packaging References External links * * * * * Category:Illustration Category:Graphic design Category:Comics terminology Category:Works by cover artist Category:Covers by artist